Germany awards $2.4 billion naval shipbuilding contract

Staff Writer | September 13, 2017

The German defence procurement agency said it has awarded a contract valued at nearly 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) to a consortium of shipbuilders led by Lurrsen Werft for five new corvettes to be delivered from 2022 to 2025.

Defense The NATO alliance

The agency said the contract would give the German navy additional proven warships to keep up with its increased responsibilities within the NATO alliance.

The consortium also includes Thyssenkrupp and German Naval Yards, which had undertaken legal action to be added to the group.

In July Germany's competition regulator, the federal cartel office, said it would not block moves by Lurssen and Thyssenkrupp to expand the consortium after finding no evidence of antitrust concerns.

The companies decided to join forces after a German court upheld a protest that German Naval Yards had filed against the ministry's decision to skip an open competition for the corvettes, a decision that was then challenged by the ministry. ■